New IPv6 Raises Possible IP Addresses To Trillions

A new system for IP addresses has gone into effect, raising the possible number of IP addresses from four billion to trillions.

IPv6 was launched, and is meant to replace IPv4, which was conceived of during the early days of the internet. IPv4 only allows for four billion unique IP addresses and we have currently already surpassed that limit, with many devices being forced to share IP addresses.

Cisco predicts that 18.6 billion devices will be on the internet in 2016.

In his blog, Vint Cerf, "chief internet evangelist" said, ""The new, larger IPv6 expands the limit to 2^128 addresses-more than 340 trillion, trillion, trillion! Enough for essentially unlimited growth for the foreseeable future."

The new system does not immediately replace IPv4. The two will run side by side for a while until a complete switch over to IPv6 is made. However, once this switch is made, older devices might end up having troubles.

"The introduction of IPv6 is the IT equivalent of the move from imperial to metric for measurement; the two can run side by side but aren't compatible with each other,"  Mark Lewis, vice president for development for telecommunications firm Interoute told the BBC.

Most major internet companies including Google and Facebook have already adopted IPv6 in an attempt help bolster its attractiveness.